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Monday, July 14, 2014

A few facts about marijuana in Colorado

Colorado’s marijuana
industry is the result of extremely good planning. They are not running out of weed. Any adult anywhere in the
state can possess marijuana, they can grow it, and use it, all not just by law,
but by a Constitutional right – the 64th amendment to the Colorado
Constitution. That’s a far cry from merely allowing stores to sell pot in
certain areas. Now, the recreational sale of marijuana is spreading rather
slowly so all the news you may have heard about tax revenues have been based
upon sales in very few places, Denver being the biggest market. Telluride has
four recreational outlets. Pagosa Springs gave the green light recently, but the earliest they might start selling is mid-August (2014). Durango is still in planning stages. I don’t trust all the info I’ve seen
online so it’s a good idea to double check before you go to a particular town
in search of retail recreational sales.

I won’t go into the
medical marijuana laws since that only applies to Colorado residents and you
can learn all about that after you get a Colorado drivers license. Suffice it
to say that Colorado medical marijuana permits are easily obtained and allow
those with permits to buy and hold large quantities.

In
the recreational stores an out-of-state shopper can only buy ¼ of an ounce per
day. That can last for days, of course. I have not researched quantities on baked
goods and other edibles. Quality varies from good to out-of-this world great.
It’s a good idea to look at the product. You want all buds and you want buds
with visible tiny hairs and resins. Some shops trim the potent resins for use
in other products. Bummer. I prefer weed that grew in dirt organically, but
there are some magicians out there doing amazing things with hydroponics.

When
entering the world of hash things get more complex. There are hash-type
products that use butane and CO2 in the processing. Those are concentrated THC
products and I avoid them. I can’t speak for CO2-extracted hash, but the butane
products make by lungs feel bad in a way I never experienced before in my life
and I want nothing to do with them. So I buy hash made in a water-based, or
ice-based, process. I hear they put the weed into a washing machine for the
procedure. It comes out looking a bit like thin beef jerky. It can then be made
into lumps of varying sizes. Most hash makers use leaves and droppings left
from the plant after buds are harvested. That can include high-potency resins
that fell off the buds onto leaves below them, but I am looking for hash that
was made from the best buds. I’m sure somebody is doing it.

I’ve
had varying results with edibles and products for drinking. I have drunk sodas
that were supposed to have a high dose of THC and felt very little. I have
eaten pastries that have knocked my socks off. I have never been in a store
that failed to inform me and caution me about potency. A 25mg dose of THC in an
edible should be you’re first dose unless you have reason to be extremely
cautious. If you buy a delicious pastry that contains 400mgs you’d better
decide on how big a bite you dare before you get wrapped up in taste and overdo
it.

The
high from an edible can creep up on you. It will never be as fast acting as
smoking and it can keep on taking you higher well after you’ve reached a
“peak.” I have settled on a chocolate product. It’s divided into rectangles of
controlled doses so I have learned what to expect and how much to take for
various reasons at various times. The high you can get from edibles is well
worth exploring.

The
idea that you can smoke anywhere anytime could get you into trouble. Smoking
your legal weed is going to prove more restrictive than drinking alcohol, but
it’s a good tool for comparison. You don’t drink and drive and you better not
smoke and drive. You can’t walk through the park legally smoking a joint. If
you go onto federal land (national parks, BLM lands) pot is illegal by federal
law. Colorado is not Haight-Ashbury, but it feels that way, just don’t go off
into la-la land and wind up in jail.